"TAP, TAP"

This Sunday, October 21st, we were in a restaurant with Uncle Joe, Grandma M, Grandpa M, super-mom, super-dad and a friend. Uncle Joe was holding Isabella while feeding her for the first time.

They were sitting next to super-dad. She was eating carrots and apples. This was the first time Uncle Joe fed her, everything went well, she ate great! Uncle Joe had her sitting on his right leg, and her arms were free to do whatever they needed. Apparently that meant that for every bite, she would reach out and tap daddy on the arm. It was hilarious. Spoon in food, mouth open, bite in mouth, "TAP, TAP" on daddy's arm. Most of the time, she wouldn't even make eye contact with her target. She would just reach out and "TAP" daddys arm.
We couldn't figure out any reason for it. But she ate about 1/2 of a 2.5 ounce jar of carrots, and about 3/4 of a 2.5 ounce jar of apples, and for the whole of her meal, she felt the need to "TAP" daddy's arm

QUICK UPDATE:
We can:
wave goodbye/hello
say "bye", say "hi"
say mama
pull up to standing
dance
sign more, eat
make faces (copy your silly faces)
comes to you when you call her

catching up

let's see, last log-in was September 19th Bella had just pulled herself to standing.

we thought she was saying mamamamama

and just overall being way too smart for her own good.

Today is Sunday October 7th. Bella is still pulling herself to standing, BUT she has definitely improved her dismount. Now she can let go of the object she is using to hold onto and land on her butt instead of her head. Super dad is still being a super dad and putting pillows behind her just in case. Of course today, the one time she flubbs her dismount and, no pillows. OH well, I didn't raise no wuss.

We thought we saw her sign "more" last weekend at the St. Marys Fall Festival, then again last Tuesday, then we KNOW she is signing more for food. We were outside and letting Bella explore the leaves. She really wanted to eat them, but we did a quick training session telling her no, that leaves aren't for eating, and let her play with them. Every time she would put a leaf to her mouth to eat it, we tell her no, then she would sign "more" as if that would give her permission to eat it since she is asking nicely. IT was so damn cute. Every time that leaf went to her lips it was the same cycle...
"No, Isabella you can't eat the leaf."
"more?"
"No, Isabella you can't eat leaves."
"more?"

Eventually she stopped putting the leaves to her lips and just looked at us and signed "more"....
Then we told her, "No, Isabella, brown leaves from trees are not food."

Also today, she had pulled herself up onto the edge of the lazyboy and could look over the edge at me, and I started prompting her, "Say mama"
"say mama"

after about 5 "say mamas", she did!! She copied me, mouth movements and all, sometime she would add voice to her movements, and sometimes she would just copy my mouth. It was the cutest thing.. we got it on videotape, I am so excited.

Then it was really funny, we started prompting, "say daddy", "say daddy"
she just looked at us like we had stalks of asparagus sticking out of our heads.
Eventually she started mimicing the mouth movements for daddy, but no voice.

It was so sweet to hear my baby say mama. I am sad for super dad though. Daddy usually comes first.

anyway, gotta get to bed.
I love you Isabella.